According to the new Strategy, the University of Turku began to significantly strengthen the quality, interdisciplinary emphasis and effectiveness of research. The University's first Research Assessment Exercise was carried out in 2015–2016. In the future, the assessments will be carried out at regular intervals. The targets of the Research Assessment Exercise were all the departments and units of the University's seven faculties as well as the independent units that conduct research.

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The Research Assessment Exercise included a self-evaluation of the units, international peer assessment and a bibliometric analysis. The assessment covered the units' research activities between 2010–2013.

The goal of the international assessment was to identify strengths in research and departments whose research activities showed potential for the development of new areas of strength. The assessment that concerned all research activities during 2010–2013 shows that the University holds a strong position as an international science university. The results of the assessment were utilised already in 2016 and will be taken into consideration when developing the University's research activities in the future.

Non-peer reviewed 615

Scientific books 106

■ C1 Book 39■ C2 Edited book, conference proceedings or special issue of a journal 67

Publications intended for professional communities 588

■ D1 Article in a trade journal 321■ D2 Article in a professional manual or guide or professional information system, textbook material 103■ D3 Article in professional conference proceedings 8■ D4 Published development or research report 123■ D5 Textbook, professional manual or guide, dictionary 24■ D6 Edited professional book 9

Publications intended for the general public 437

Doctoral dissertations 169

Other publications 389

i.e. publications that do not have a publication type defined by the Ministry of Education and Culture

Open Science

The University of Turku encourages its researchers to open their research data and publications to everyone according to the principles of open science.

In 2016, 18 percent of the A1–E3 publications were parallel publications, i.e. final drafts of articles published in journals subject to a fee, and uploaded by the author to the University's Research Portal. In addition, 25 percent were Golden Open Access publications, i.e. publications in a journal where all the articles are open to all users; and 6 percent were hybrid open access, i.e. the article was published in a journal subject to a fee but has been opened to the public with a publication fee.

Competitive Funding Increased over 10 Percent

In research, one of the most central follow-up indicators is the amount of competitive research funding. In 2016, the University community attained €47.3 million in competitive funding, which is over 10 percent more than in the previous year. As a result, the University almost achieved the target for competitive funding set by the Ministry of Education and Culture, missing it only by three percent.

The Academy of Finland granted the University of Turku over €7.6 million in funding for developing its strengths. The Academy's Strategic Research Council chose 14 consortiums to its research programmes and the University of Turku leads three of them. In addition, the Academy granted funding to one strategic research programme led by the University's researcher already in 2015.

The Academy of Finland also granted the Forging ahead with research key project funding to five research projects of the University of Turku.

Virpi Lummaa and Riitta Lahesmaa started their in the posts as Academy Professors in 2016. Furthermore, the Academy of Finland appointed Professors Hannu Salmi and Craig Primmer for academy professorships starting from 2017.